


Squad Phoenix

by mintpearlvoice



Category: No One Has To Die
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Arson, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-27 21:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintpearlvoice/pseuds/mintpearlvoice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A former juvenile delinquent with flames at her fingertips, an adorkable hacker, a man with power over time, a millionaire, and a ghost search for corporate secrets and save each others' lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Squad Phoenix

She'd gotten into the building, killed the Manticorp operatives, and sent Steve all the data he could possibly sort through before allowing herself free rein. And now- this was the moment, the flashover, right when a fire in a room became a room on fire. She could never explain to anyone how good it felt. The flames' glow danced on her pale face as she smiled serenely.   
"Christina, you need to get out of there."   
"Steve, you worry too much-"  
"This isn't about me worrying, it's about losing an operative. Ask Visitor if you don't believe me."  
A melange of phrases flashed through her brain, undercut by feelings of indecision and panic: chat system locked and unavoidable and flight attendant and parakeet and move, Christina. 

She always hated leaving a fire, but sometimes it was for the best. And when a ghost told you to do something, you fucking listened. 

Left, right, another right- and then a wall of flames, so close it almost singed the tip of her nose, and getting closer.  
It was like raising a child that bit your breasts off.

"Troy, I need you," she said into her headset.  
"Give me a moment, I need to get a lock on your psychic signature-"  
"Troy, you should hurry."  
"Do you want to lose your corpus callosum?"  
"Do you want to lose me?"  
"Hang on… okay, got it."  
There was a sensation as if her entire soul had been scooped from her body, and then she was back in the conference room, right before the flashover, the heat making her feel alive.  
"Christina-" That was Steve.  
"On it," she said. And, then, without moving her lips: Okay, Visitor. Move me.   
Her legs took off running, finding the right path without conscious interference. The next thing she knew, she was leaving the building. 

There were four of them in Phoenix Corporation's most secret division: Firebug, Rewind, the Boss, and Steve. She'd been Little Bug before she was Firebug, but that brought up memories of matching mother-daughter outfits and frosting on noses, of packing up and moving whenever the mood struck them, of the way they'd always had each other.

They were still finding pieces of her mother's body. 

Before Phoenix, no one had believed that Christina couldn't keep herself from setting fires, that flames danced on her fingertips.  
No one had believed that the reason Troy couldn't hold down a job was because he was obsessed with using his powers to save innocents.  
No one had believed that Steve could speak. 

Lionel had found a motherless girl in juvenile detention, a boy so shy he could barely speak, and a man plagued with Cassandra-like predictions that no one heeded, and forged them into a team. He had founded them, funded them, believed in them.   
He'd pointed them at a target- at Manticorp, the company responsible for killing Christina's mother with their experiments on superpowered humans- and said "Go for it."   
Their fifth teammate, though, had found them. 

Doors unlocked before Steve could hack into them. Troy slept dreamlessly, Lionel no longer did his own tax returns, and Christina could always find a parking space. She could be in the middle of nowhere and still have perfect Wi-Fi.   
They'd get warnings, sensations, bits of advice.  
They called it Visitor. It spoke in an odd mix of feelings and sensations and phrases picked up from Phoenix corporation internal memorandum, and it had saved their lives at least a dozen times each. 

Visitor, an insubstantial yet definite presence, nudged up against her as she exited the burning building: Christina lives!  
She pulled on the special fireproof gloves that Steve had designed for her, wincing at the familiar dead, numb sensation they produced in her fingers. "Yes, certainly. Can you get me a taxi?"  
Chat system locked.   
When she reached the corner, three taxis pulled over at once. 

Upon reaching her apartment, Christina removed her gloves briefly so she could light the ten candles in every room of the apartment, and the fireplace that blazed in the sitting room. 

She was just about to microwave dinner when her cellphone rang.   
Girl, girl, you gonna set me on fire, my brain is flaming, I don't know which way to go…  
That was Steve's ringtone, Elvis by way of Alvin and the Chipmunks. He'd chosen it because he thought it was funny, and she thought it was cute that he thought it was funny.   
"Christina?"  
"Yeah, Steve?"  
"I know you just got home and all, but could you possibly get down to Headquarters? Visitor and I found a blue folder."  
Blue was the color of Manticorp secrets, of the codes they guarded so carefully.  
Blue meant information about her mother.  
"Umm, I know it's late, but… if you want, after the meeting, I could get you pizza, and we could talk and stuff."  
"I'll be there," she said, and the candles flickered.


End file.
